Question to healers

[Rawrz]

Embrace is 300 potency and Rouse adds 40%. Add to that the fact that you can utilize skills like Fey Illumination and Whispering Dawn, meaning you can practically live in Cleric Stance even in big pulls if you use them along with buffs like e4e.

Going further from what Kaurie said(She's also correct about pet potency nerf from 50 to 60), who uses Eos in Expert? xD Selene is your go to for speed runs and she handles the damage like a champ on her own (cool downs from a decent tank be willing.) In the new Dungeons she's also able to silence Banish III from the light sprites and other random trash mobs as well as a free AOE esuna, saving you a fair amount of GCDs that would have been spent healing or an aetherflow towards Indom instead of Energy Drain.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I don't do this because this is not my playstyle as a healer. I'm a very risk adverse person so will keep all dps full and typically stoneskinned and the tank above 70% if possible. If the tank is particularly competent, I will let them go to 50% but not lower.

This may sound bad to some people, but I prefer to be sure no one dies than to add my own dps and then have to rez someone. If a group wants me to dps more, then the following should happen:

1. DPS should move out of AEs or scripted events that cause massive damage. If the DPS is good at this, I can dps more and worry about them less.
2. The tanks should be using defensive cooldowns on pulls. A lot of times they don't use any at all until bosses. Therefore their hp plummets and I can't safely go into Cleric until there are only 1 or 2 mobs left to kill.
3. The tank should pull only as much as they are geared for. Undergeared tanks pulling everything possible will result in my needing to heal 100% of the time and sometimes Benediction to avoid their death.
4. Some tanks run off before all of the mobs are killed, chaining pulls and leaving no chance to get out of combat. If this happens I can't DPS because Shroud of Saints by itself isn't enough to keep my MP high if I never leave combat.

So, how much I can DPS does often depend on the competency of those around me. Some groups are great and I can get quite a bit of DPS out. Others...not so much.

PS: I also have only been back in game for 1 month and just got Heavensward, so I don't know all the instances like the back of my hand. I am not 100% sure when large damage will come, so I choose to be prepared by keeping HPs high. I don't even know what a tankbuster is - do these happen outside of raids? If they do I haven't seen much of a problem because I typically keep HP on the higher end.

[FinaSel]

Personally, I try not to let the tank get below 50%. But it depends on a lot on how much damage the tank is taking and how fast their health is going down.
As soon as the tank gets enmity, I open with Divine Seal (if up) and Regen. If there are several groups of mobs I might pop in Eye for an Eye. This is usually enough that I don't need to heal for the rest of the fight.

If the tank's health is going down fast, I'll DPS until it gets to 30% or so. If up, Swiftcast and Cure II. Otherwise there is no time to DPS...
Then switch out of CS, heal him up real fast, and switch back to CS.

If his health is going down really slowly, there may not even be a need to heal at all. When it gets to 50 I'll pop in 1 Cure II and that's enough to bring it almost to full, without overhealing. Switch back to CS and DPS. (Because there is no CS cooldown on switching into CS, only out of it)

If the tank isn't using any cooldowns, I'll wait until their health gets really low to force them to actually play their role. I'm not going to be the only one working like crazy. We both need to play our roles effectively to clear the dungeon quickly and smoothly. That means proper use of skills.

But by and large, most tanks I'm with get to 50% slowly enough that I can do a lot of DPS, switch, heal, switch back, DPS more.
I don't want to the tank thinking "Come on healer! Hurry up! I'm about to die! Don't you see my health? Where are the heals?" At any point in the dungeon.

[Hayward]

This mentality has gotten to the point where I wouldn't be sorry to see the fairies' Cure potency cut by half whenever a SCH is in Cleric Stance. If you want to DPS full time, switch over to SMN.

[Ashkendor]

Going further from what Kaurie said(She's also correct about pet potency nerf from 50 to 60), who uses Eos in Expert? xD Selene is your go to for speed runs and she handles the damage like a champ on her own (cool downs from a decent tank be willing.) In the new Dungeons she's also able to silence Banish III from the light sprites and other random trash mobs as well as a free AOE esuna, saving you a fair amount of GCDs that would have been spent healing or an aetherflow towards Indom instead of Energy Drain.

I do. The DPS increase from Fey Wind can be small but decent in 8 man content; in 4 man content it's negligible. I've found Silent Dusk to be very slow and unreliable unless you leave the fairy on Sic, in which case she'll blow it on the first cast bar she sees (whether it's affected by silence or not) because the AI isn't very bright about that kind of thing. Banish III is something your melee or tank should be stunning anyway if the Light Sprite even lives that long. If worst comes to worst, Fey Covenant reduces the amount of damage you take from it as does Virus. The AoE Leeches can be nice but it's extremely situational. There are very few times when I'd be removing a debuff from more than one person at a time anyway. Selene has her uses, but overall I find Eos lets me stay in Cleric Stance more reliably even when the tank is doing enormous pulls or the party is taking AoE damage. I don't need to blow a stack on Indom when I can preemptively have FI + WD up and let the regen effect heal them back up.

This mentality has gotten to the point where I wouldn't be sorry to see the fairies' Cure potency cut by half whenever a SCH is in Cleric Stance. If you want to DPS full time, switch over to SMN.

I don't get what the issue is. If I can do 850 DPS over the course of a dungeon and still keep the party healthy, what's the problem?

[Gemina]

...how much I can DPS does often depend on the competency of those around me. Some groups are great and I can get quite a bit of DPS out...

^This.

Why are SCH talking about remaining in cleric so much? As if it's their priority? Is it different in 8-man content? I definitely dance a lot less on SCH, due to fairy. But I see her as a partner. She takes care of most of the healing. I assist her with adlo and succor, and cleric needs to be off. They also allow you to DPS more since it will take longer for your members to reach your threshold.

For me, it's getting to the point where I dislike if anyone other than the tank takes a hit w/o a shield up. I know I can't always have them up, but when it comes time for filler, my priority is succor/ruin/ruin2, not the other way around. I'll always DPS as much as I can, which is a lot lol. But me and my fairies priorities are mitigating and fixing dmg and I LOVE to see those little green icons.

[WinterLuna]

I am very confident in my healing ability. Sometimes I take a moment to gauge the damage the tank is tanking in duties i'm very familiar with to get an idea how far I can let them go. I'm not trying to make you crap your pants. I'm just maximizing the time I can stay in Cleric before coming out of it to top you off again. It's probably scary when you don't know your healer, but most of us have healed long enough we know how far we can let you get down to.

This. /10 char

[Lexia]

I don't get what the issue is. If I can do 850 DPS over the course of a dungeon and still keep the party healthy, what's the problem?

Hey if person wants to play healer and push as much dps as possible well good for them but they not happy with that a lot want to push their play style on others so if person doesn't play like them then they are considered bad players.

[Chiramu]

Brown trousers time isn't fun D: !

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Why are SCH talking about remaining in cleric so much.

Because that is the priority. This is 2016, scholars aren't healers, they're just DPS that happen to have a healer pet. DPS takes priority over everything, including healing.